New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

A few seconds after the golden dragon departed from Sunpeak, there were already only about a hundred players left around the red dragon. The damage they were doing was now microscopic.

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They would never take down the dragon like this.

Among these players, one man was already thinking of a solution. This man was Killi.

But he wasn’t sure anyone would agree to it. Players were always stubborn, after all, especially if they had stuck with this suicide quest up to now.

But his doubts soon vanished.

The event quest was suddenly updated, sending a system prompt to all the players still present. There was an additional clause to it.

*Quest update!*

*The minimum number of players for this quest is no longer met. A party reward is now established in case of takedown.*

*Extra Reward for the killing party: One item from loot/player.*

Many players had questions pop into their minds from the wording. What did the system mean?

Wasn’t the loot guaranteed to go to the killing party already? But something rapidly washed the questions away, when a large armed force appeared at the edge of the burnt woods.

The army was flying banners of Sunpeak and the royal guard. The players immediately understood what would happen after they slew the beast.

Many players were tempted to just leave right away, since there was no longer loot to be gained if they weren’t part of the winning party.

But Killi was of a different mindset.

He backed away from the dragon briefly, trying to spot Astaroth. Once he did, he used the private messaging function.

Astaroth was busy zooming around the dragon’s back and dodging bullets from Azamus when he received a message from Killi. The distraction almost caused him to crash into the left wing of the beast.

He opened the message, wondering why the man was sending him messages mid-battle.

‘Astaroth, send me a party invite.’

Astaroth frowned, looking at the man from above. He could see Killi mouthing the word ‘Hurry’ from all the way up, and it only made him more confused.

‘Why would I invite you to my party?’

‘Because anyone not in the slayer’s party won’t get anything. Let’s make this event worth it.’

‘And what makes you think my party will be the slayer?’

‘Just a hunch. Quickly, we are running out of time. The boss is about to rage again!’

Astaroth couldn’t argue with his logic, as he had already seen the army approaching before the others, since he was at a vantage point. He had already guessed what they were here for.

No kingdom would skip out on a dragon’s loot, after all. Since the system updated the quest to full-party rewards for the slayers, Astaroth got an idea.

He invited Killi, but then he changed the party settings, switching it from a party to a raid team. This automatically adjusted the party limit from twelve players to a hundred.

Astaroth could tell there were more players than that still present, but he didn’t care. It would become first come, first served.

He sent out a team invitation to all the players in his sight, and before long, players started accepting them. Astaroth purposely skipped Azamus, since he had been shooting at him, anyway.

The raid team filled up in a matter of seconds. You could see the raid size next to the invitation, and when the first few people started accepting it, and the number grew, it was like dominoes falling.

Phoenix sent Astaroth a private message.

‘What are you doing?! Why did you invite all these players suddenly?’

‘Look at the updated quest message. You can’t see this, but there is an army from Sunpeak, waiting for us to either die so they can slay the dragon, or for us to kill it so they can loot it.’

No response came for a while, before she typed the word ‘Fine.’

Astaroth could feel she disapproved of his move, but he knew she would come around. This was the best way to make sure everyone profits from the situation, and it would boost their reputation among the player community.

Killi was already silently approving of this move. PR was a big part of being a pro player, and this move was a massive PR stunt.

He would have proposed it if Astaroth didn’t think about it himself, but he underestimated his smarts.

But the situation rapidly turned. The red dragon’s health finally reached ten percent, and it bellowed to the sky for the third time.

The players were expecting this and kept fighting, but they soon realized how bad this was. The defences of the dragon had suddenly leaped so much that everyone on the outside was doing less than ten percent of their normal damage.

If this wasn’t dire enough, the dragon blew out a gout of fire again, this time pure white, and even with shields and magic, it disintegrated anyone caught in its wake.

This left only the players that were nimble enough to move out of the way standing. It instantly greyed half of the raid team out in the raid window.

To make matters worse, a gigantic shadow started descending on them. Another dragon, this one gold, was diving onto the red one.

Astaroth had to throw himself off the dragon’s back, just to avoid getting crushed. The collision of the two massive beasts made the red dragon’s legs buckle, laying it flat on its stomach.

This killed another batch of players, who were standing underneath it. When the golden dragon bit down on the red one’s throat, the damage it dealt made everyone gasp in horror.

A single bite took away four percent of the dragon’s remaining health. A second bite came soon after, and before long, the dragon died.

But the player’s jaws hit the floor again. Any player that had joined the raiding party was currently seeing the same prompt before their eyes.

*Congratulations to player Violette, for slaying the Dragon. Violette’s party has been awarded the secondary rewards!*

One word echoed in everyone’s mind:

‘HOW?!’